Carl English’s basketball story is anything but ordinary. A longtime veteran of the Canadian National Team and 2018 NBL Canada Most Valuable Player, the 37-year-old grew up in Patrick’s Cove, Newfoundland (population: 56), shooting hoops on the side of the highway. He went on to star at the University of Hawaii and led the team to two March Madness appearances. He’s dodged bottles of urine while playing in Europe and weathered taunts from Kobe Bryant.

The sport has also been an outlet in some of English’s most difficult life circumstances: at five years old, he lost his parents after a house fire, then lost his uncle while playing in the NCAA. It’s all part of his latest book, Chasing a Dream: stories of his path from a small-town fishing village to becoming one of the country’s all-time basketball greats.